Excerpt from William Maclay, United States Senator From Pennsylvania, 1789-1791 After the Federal Constitution had been ratified by a sufficient number of states, the different commonwealths proceeded to elect senators and representatives to the new Congress. Several interesting characters were thereby called into public life, among them being William Maclay, a native of Chester County. The subject of this sketch was but five years old, when the father led his family to the Scotch-Irish settlement in what is now Franklin County. Here young Maclay grew to manhood and became prominent in colonial affairs. He was soon attracted to the upper Susquehanna region, and figured in the pioneer settlement of Sunbury. After the close of the Revolutionary War, probably in 1786, he changed his residence to Harrisburg, and from this place, he was called to the first senate of the United States. Although the public career of William Maclay is identified with other portions of the State, Chester County claims him as a son by birth. It is, therefore, appropriate that the Historical Society should devote an evening to his achievements. This feeling led me to accept the invitation to prepare the paper which I now offer, - not as a complete biography of Senator Maclay, but merely an outline of the more important facts of his life. In January, 1789, the Pennsylvania Assembly chose Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, and William Maclay, of Harrisburg, to represent this State in the United States Senate. As it was arranged that one-third of the body should retire every two years, it became necessary for the first Senators to draw their terms by lot. The long term of six years fell to Robert Morris, while William Maclay drew the short term of two years. Maclay grew up on the Scotch frontier of Pennsylvania, and had all the prejudices of the provincial settlers beyond the mountains. His friends have claimed for him the title of the first Democrat, for his opposition to the Federal policies antedated Jefferson's, who was still in Europe when Maclay took his seat as a senator. In the early days, the Senate was a secret body, but Maclay left a valuable contribution to political history in his "Sketches of Debate in the First Senate of the United States." This work throws much interesting light upon the deliberations of the Senate, when it was in many instances evenly divided, so that it became necessary for the Vice President to cast the deciding vote at least twenty times during the life of the first Congress. Morris and his colleague, Maclay, form an interesting study in practical politics. They both took an active part in the debates of the Senate, and they disagreed on almost every subject. Maclay, naturally a man of strong prejudices, distrusted Morris and often gave him a thrust about his unsettled accounts. He had a strong suspicion of John Adams, the Vice President, whom he accused of monarchical tendencies, ambitious to become the American King. He wrote of Adams: "I have really often looked at him with surprise mingled with contempt when he is in the chair, and no business is before the Senate. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.